Remember when Grambling State started the 2011 season 1-4 before rattling off seven straight to win a porous SWAC Western Division and eventually the conference championship?
Well, it could happen again in 2012 with Jackson State. The Tigers have found themselves a win over Alcorn State in the season finale (this Saturday) away from duplicating what Grambling did a season ago.
I didn’t think Grambling was very good last year. And I don’t know if JSU is championship worthy either.
The Tigers were left for dead after stumbling out of the gate 2-4 earlier this season.
Undoubtedly, the worst loss of that stretch was a 28-21 defeat against Southern one week after the Jaguars lost to then winless Mississippi Valley State , which led to the firing of then head coach Stump Mitchell.
Trailing Eastern Division leading Alabama A&M by four games in the loss column midway through the first half of the season, it appeared J-State was finished.
That was before the SWAC does what it seems to routinely accomplish; come back to the pack.
Wins over the enigma known as Alabama State, a Mississippi Valley State outfit that has taken advantage of a league mired in decline, Grambling in the middle its worst season in school history, and Saturday’s win over Alabama A&M – a team that fails to come up big in important games – has put Rick Comegy’s bunch in a position to win a pedestrian East.
And I don’t know if that’s a good thing for the sake of the conference, considering winning an average league didn’t propel Grambling to a productive 2012 campaign.
